May 29/06 10:16 am - Tour de Grand Montreal: Stage 1

Posted by Editoress on 05/29/06

Tour du Grand Montreal Montreal, Quebec

Stage 1: Lachine ITT, 10.85km

The American Christine Thorburn seized the yellow jersey during the first stage of the Tour cycliste du Grand Montréal, a 10.85 km individual time trial run in 14 minutes, 49 seconds through the streets of the Lachine borough in Montréal.

The Californian, wearing the colours of the Webcor-Platinum team, beat her two closest rivals, Kori Seehafer and Kristin Armstrong, two Americans from the Lipton team, by 9 and 11 seconds, respectively.

Trixi Worrack of Germany (Nurnberger) and Rachel Heal of Great Britain (Victory Brewing) respectively conceded 18 and 24 seconds while the winner of the Coupe du monde sur le Mont-Royal two days ago, Judith Arndt (T-Mobile), had to content herself with the 7th place, coming in 26 seconds after the winner.

Team Lipton beat out the other teams, also counting American Grace Fleury's good performance, finishing in 6th place. The team has a 34 second lead on Webcor-Platinum and 54 seconds on Victor Brewing. Team Canada is in 6th place (+1:46) while Team Québec is in 13th place (+3:16) among the 19 participating teams.

Christine Thorburn was wearing the yellow jersey at the end of the first stage. Kori Seehafer will be wearing the pink jersey as leader in point ranking. The jersey for the best Quebecer goes to Anne Samplonius (Biovail) coming in 10th, 31 seconds behind the leader. Alex Wrubleski of Team Canada was the best Canadian in 8th position, 28 seconds behind Thorburn.

The race ended with one woman, Ilda Guiterez Mota of Mexico, abandoning due to an injury sustained at the beginning of the race. Three competitors did not race: Rosario Peralta (Mexico), Lee Darling (Coastal) and Aimee Vass (Colorado Premier Training).